Aught, no. 15 (2006)

Brian Dean Bollman

A Flora

        an unbroken strand

        relatively isolated
        fractured
Block
        not sufficiently obscure
        to please
Subdivision

Altamont Pass
        not having
        the mild
        and gracious hills

        for pale poets

The San Joaquin Valley
        wan
        refined and dreamy

Sharply limited
        effervescent jive

Here
        unstable
Talus
Drainage pattern
        of the interior

Arroyo Del Puerto
        uplifted
        between western
        and eastern crests

Lone Tree Canyon
        a body hanging

I can forget my otherness

        it consists
        of a convoluted area

Topography rough
No striking diversity of relief

Elegant pain
        in which

The original
        erosional pattern
        has not much changed

Not all the clubs
        and guns

        freedom rides

        keeps it
        from still flowing
At grade in the old
        undisturbed
Valleys

Such early
        topographic maturity

        wondering why
You felt compelled
To say
        whatever you said

        a mountain mass
Setting fire…
        to whitie’s ass

Asking the checker lilies
        Are you white
        or are you black

        can you jerk
        along the fault line

Marking the boundary
        to the west
        decreasing gradually

The alluvial deposits
        leaving dead

Let the major floristic changes
        be a black poem
        of Franciscan rocks
        or northern margin

Magic
Actions
        beyond
Geologic history
        beyond
Climate and soils

This highly xerophytic landscape
        the climax
Chaparral association
        the dominant

Chamise
        sometimes
        pure
        or almost pure

Cohabitants
        silktassel
        mtn. mahogany
        bearberry

We are very barren
        in other places

There is paleobotanical evidence
        for private dungeons

Taking lives if need be
Making our own world
        a comprehensive picture
        of vegetation

        attempting
        the most extensive

Communities
        with floristic content
        seasonal periodicity
        introduced species
        isolated remnants

Aughtor's note: The italicized samples come from Ray Durem, Naomi Madgett, Conrad Kent Rivers, Imamu Amiri Baraka, and Sonia Sanchez.

[untitled]

 (                      a)

       sit            sigh           ignimbrite
           clock             uncle lighter
         flock              mill         tickle nigh
          fill           wash and biter
          



(                      b)

       to me        to the     of the      
and   will        with     
or     a     but in the    
and     not      for




(                      c)

The pane     the glass
     The warping trinity     the morass

In time

In time
      Wed      of the direction
      The compass

In list

In lee          chalk
      The barn    of repartee

      West
      
      The spine of      ash tree
Sought

      Borer
            frass

 

Copyright © 2006, by the author. All rights reserved.
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